He hates the spotlight, but Tommy Franks is about to take center stage against Iraq

When two soldiers under fire are thrown into the same foxhole, survival depends on putting any differences aside. Perhaps that explains why General Tommy Franks and Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld left work one night recently for a stag dinner right out of a buddy movie. Back in January, their wives out of town, Franks and Rumsfeld hit a Georgetown sushi bar after the multimillionaire Pentagon chief decided to give the Oklahoma-born and Texas-reared artilleryman his first taste of raw fish. As Franks recalled it, "About midafternoon he said, 'Let's go eat sushi,' and I said, 'Eat what?' I told him I'd...